Early Mortality Prediction in Intensive Care Unit Patients Based on Serum Metabolomic Fingerprint.

Predicting mortality in intensive care units (ICUs) is essential for timely interventions and efficient resource use, especially during pandemics like COVID-19, where high mortality persisted even after the state of emergency ended. Current mortality prediction methods remain limited, especially for critically ill ICU patients, due to their dynamic metabolic changes and heterogeneous pathophysiological processes. This study evaluated how the serum metabolomic fingerprint, acquired through Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, could support mortality prediction models in COVID-19 ICU patients.

Laser-Based Length-Measuring Board for the Measurement of Infant Body Length from Outside an Incubator: Proposal and Assessment of a Model.

Introduction: Opening the incubator side wall to insert a non-sterile length-measuring device carries the risk of microbial contamination and thermal instability for preterm infants. To reduce this inconvenience, a laser-based length-measuring board is proposed to measure body length from outside the incubator.

Methods: This device has two laser-line-shaped cursors which can be pointed to opposite ends of a segment to be measured.

Prevalence of Lower Back Pain and Risk Factors in Equestrians: A Systematic Review.

This systematic review aimed to determine the prevalence of lower back pain (LBP) in equestrian athletes (EAs) and identify associated risk factors. Following the PRISMA guidelines, observational studies published between 2004 and 2024 in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and German were included. The review identified relevant studies through the Web of Science, EBSCO, MEDLINE, and SCOPUS (last search performed on 30 October 2024), yielding 14 studies with a total of 4527 participants.

Occupational Stress and Sleep of Military Police Officers From Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Objective: Military Police officers of Rio de Janeiro's State have been considered the most lethal security forces in Brazil, corresponding to 52.35% of deaths in policing actions. The main aim of this study was to identify occupational stress among military police officers in Rio de Janeiro State and its relationship with the psychosocial environment, sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness.

Possible Interaction Between Physical Exercise and Leptin and Ghrelin Changes Following Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass in Sarcopenic Obesity Patients-A Pilot Study.

Introduction: Leptin and ghrelin are two hormones that play a role in weight homeostasis. Leptin, which is produced primarily by adipocytes and is dependent on body fat mass, suppresses appetite and increases energy expenditure. Conversely, ghrelin is the "hunger hormone", it stimulates appetite and promotes fat storage.

Violence against healthcare professionals: perspective of local focal points in the south of Portugal.

Background: Violence against health professionals is a growing problem that affects the quality of care provided and the well-being of workers. In the Alentejo region (Southern Portugal), the Regional Health Administration has been developing strategies to prevent and combat this phenomenon, namely, through the implementation of the Action Plan for the Prevention of Violence in the Health Sector. Violence in the health sector includes all situations in which a worker in the Ministry of Health's health institutions is exposed to any type of violence related to their work, putting their safety, well-being or health at risk, or that of others.

Comparison of two metabolomics-platforms to discover biomarkers in critically ill patients from serum analysis.

Serum metabolome analysis is essential for identifying disease biomarkers and predicting patient outcomes in precision medicine. Thus, this study aims to compare Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) with Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in acquiring the serum metabolome of critically ill patients, associated with invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and predicting death. Three groups of 8 patients were considered.

Analysis of six consecutive waves of ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients: key findings and insights from a Portuguese population.

Identifying high-risk patients, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs), enhances treatment and reduces severe outcomes. Since the pandemic, numerous studies have examined COVID-19 patient profiles and factors linked to increased mortality. Despite six pandemic waves, to the best of our knowledge, there is no extensive comparative analysis of patients' characteristics across these waves in Portugal.

The Knowledge Acquired by Parents in Pregnancy Monitoring Consultations.

(1) Pregnancy surveillance nursing consultations in the pandemic context have undergone some changes, namely the restriction of accompanying persons. In this sense, assessing the knowledge acquired by parents in pregnancy surveillance is of great importance. Since there are no studies on the subject in the period before the pandemic, we will only assess the knowledge acquired by parents in pregnancy monitoring.

Prevalence of Lower Back Pain in Portuguese Equestrian Riders.

Lower back pain is prevalent in equestrian athletes, but its prevalence and associated factors are unknown in the Portuguese equestrian population. A questionnaire regarding lower back pain and possible associated factors was answered by 347 respondents. Of the respondents, 214 (61.

Discovery of Delirium Biomarkers through Minimally Invasive Serum Molecular Fingerprinting.

Delirium presents a significant clinical challenge, primarily due to its profound impact on patient outcomes and the limitations of the current diagnostic methods, which are largely subjective. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this challenge was intensified as the frequency of delirium assessments decreased in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), even as the prevalence of delirium among critically ill patients increased. The present study evaluated how the serum molecular fingerprint, as acquired by Fourier-Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectroscopy, can enable the development of predictive models for delirium.

Simplifying Data Analysis in Biomedical Research: An Automated, User-Friendly Tool.

Robust data normalization and analysis are pivotal in biomedical research to ensure that observed differences in populations are directly attributable to the target variable, rather than disparities between control and study groups. ArsHive addresses this challenge using advanced algorithms to normalize populations (e.g.

Portuguese Global Medicines Access Index 2021: An Indicator to Measure Access to Hospital Medicines.

Objectives: Access to innovative and effective medication is a citizen's right. The main objectives of this study were to build an indicator to measure access to medicines within hospitals, the Global Medicines Access Index, and to identify the main existing barriers.

Methods: Cross-sectional study carried out in Portuguese National Health Service hospitals.

Nutritional Knowledge about Maternal and Newborn Health among Physiotherapists during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Adequate nutrition before and during pregnancy, as well as postpartum, is among the major contributors to maternal and newborn health. Physiotherapists' knowledge of this area is still scarce, although their clinical practice has been linked to newborns' neuropsychomotor development, which, in turn, is influenced by maternal health and nutritional status. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the nutritional knowledge of physiotherapists regarding maternal and newborn health.

The Characteristics and Laboratory Findings of SARS-CoV-2 Infected Patients during the First Three COVID-19 Waves in Portugal-A Retrospective Single-Center Study.

: Given the wide spectrum of clinical and laboratory manifestations of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it is imperative to identify potential contributing factors to patients' outcomes. However, a limited number of studies have assessed how the different waves affected the progression of the disease, more so in Portugal. Therefore, our main purpose was to study the clinical and laboratory patterns of COVID-19 in an unvaccinated population admitted to the intensive care unit, identifying characteristics associated with death, in each of the first three waves of the pandemic.

Infection in Hospitalized Patients-A Retrospective Epidemiological Study.

infection (CDI) is the main source of healthcare and antibiotic-associated diarrhea in hospital context and long-term care units, showing significant morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological context, describing the severity and outcomes of this event in patients admitted to our hospital, thus confirming the changing global epidemiological trends in comparison with other cohorts. We conducted a single-center, observational, and retrospective study at the Hospital do Espírito Santo (HESE), Évora, in Portugal, analyzing the incidence of CDI in patients meeting eligibility criteria from January to December 2018.

Pharmacovigilance teaching and learning: a mixed cross-sectional analysis of the Portuguese public higher education system.

Pharmacovigilance stands out for its importance in obtaining existing knowledge about medicine and patient safety and should be recognized as a continuous line of study. It constitutes a highly relevant component in the activities of health professionals, with spontaneous notification of suspected adverse drug reactions being its main emphasis. The underreporting that persists can be overcome through continuous professional development programs, reinforcing theoretical and practical knowledge in the curricular plans of health courses.

Body Composition Evaluation and Clinical Markers of Cardiometabolic Risk in Patients with Phenylketonuria.

Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of mortality worldwide. Patients with phenylketonuria (PKU) may be at increased cardiovascular risk. This review provides an overview of clinical and metabolic cardiovascular risk factors, explores the connections between body composition (including fat mass and ectopic fat) and cardiovascular risk, and examines various methods for evaluating body composition.

Experience and Learning from the COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: Perceptions of Community Pharmacy Professionals.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, community pharmacy (CP) professionals were among those who experienced the greatest risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2, which forced major adaptations.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to describe the changes implemented in CP professionals during the pandemic, understand the perception of professionals about their experience, and explore changes to remain.

Methods: An observational and cross-sectional study was conducted via an online questionnaire (June-September 2020).